Pictures of the day: 23 August 2013

A young spoon-billed sandpiper. One of the rarest birds in the world has had its numbers boosted by a scheme to hand rear chicks to fledging, wildlife experts said. As few as 100 pairs of spoon-billed sandpipers remain in the wild, where they breed in the remote Russian tundra and rear just 60 young between them on average annually. Conservationists intervened to hand rear an additional 16 chicks close to their tundra home, providing a boost to the numbers which will set off this year for their annual 5,000 mile migration to Burma. The UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) worked with Russian scientists to source eggs from breeding pairs soon after they were laid.Picture: Nicky Hiscock/WWT/PA